Richie Havens played a free, but wet show in Castle Clinton last night (7/23). Bettye LaVette (now labelmates with Alec Ounsworth) plays a free and hopefully-dry show tonight (7/24) at Central Park Summerstage (with the Budos Band). Her most recent release came out in June.

Having conquered the ghosts of a hard-luck past on her GRAMMY-nominated CD The Scene of the Crime, BETTYE LAVETTE shines a new light on that past with her latest, A CHANGE IS GONNA COME SESSIONS. The digital-only EP for Anti- Records, available exclusively through iTunes starting June 16, revisits BETTYE's forgotten post-Atlantic Records years as a nightclub singer, Broadway performer, and touring cast member opposite Cab Calloway in "Bubbling Brown Sugar."

The EP opens with a stirring solo version of Sam Cooke's posthumous Civil Rights anthem "A Change Is Gonna Come," a song which BETTYE sang with Jon Bon Jovi in January as part of the "We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial" concert.